State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has again started counting losses worth around Tk 75 million per day as the fuel oil price in the international market remains bullish over the past one month.
The loss would be around Tk 5.0 per litre in diesel trading as on Saturday, said a senior BPC official.
If the uptrend in the international market lasts long, the BPC's losses will increase further.
Brent crude, the benchmark in international oil price, surged past US$90 per barrel for the first time in seven years due to global market volatility buoyed by limited inventory and Russia-Ukraine standoff.
The Brent crude price was around US$ 82 per barrel on November 4, 2021 when the prices of diesel and kerosene were raised by around 23 per cent to Tk 80 per litre from previous Tk 65.
After the hike in the domestic market, the prices of petroleum products in the international market, however, continued to fall until December 2, 2021, helping the BPC earn profit.
Commensurate with the downtrend, the BPC slashed the furnace oil price in the domestic market by Tk 2.0 per litre or by 3.22 per cent to Tk 60 per litre from previous Tk 62 per litre with effect from December 16, 2021.
Oil price in the international market had seen the steepest fall during the acute coronavirus pandemic after March 2020.
The price of Brent crude was as low as $19.33 per barrel on April 21, 2020.
During the price fall, the corporation counted profit of around Tk 16 per litre in diesel and Tk 5.50 per litre in trading of the respective petroleum products in the domestic market.
The state-owned corporation currently imports around 5.0 million tonnes of diesel, 1.30 million tonnes of crude oil, 200,000 tonnes of furnace oil and 120,000 tonnes of octane annually.
The BPC alone procures around 85 per cent of the country's oil requirement, with the rest by the private sector.
